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Sonntag, 27. April 2014

Another commission has been finished that Michi will soon send to France. Three of the ladies are WestWind miniatures for Empire of the Dead and the two in corsages and capes were former Shadowforge dark elves whose ears were clipped and bases scratchbuilt to match the resin bases of the WestWinds.

Samstag, 26. April 2014

Friday night, gaming time! This time Doc & Michi tried out the Pulp Alley rules for the first time. That was the third rule set in a series of skirmish systems that Table Terror Team tested in 2014. We compared it to Brink of Battle (which couldn´t pass our test at all) and In Her Majesties Name (which we liked very much). IHMN will definitely remain the rules for Victorian era skirmish on our tables, but Pulp Alley has impacted critically. It is a good candidate to be successor to Blood & Swash which we used for generic skirmish over different periods for years.Pulp Alley is a very clever system without boring charts and useless dice rolls. It is straightforward, not too detailed and leaves plenty of room for the storytelling element that we oldschool pen&paper roleplayers love so much.This is what happened yesterday:German protectorate (somewhere in the eastern European territories), early 1944 - a secret scientific investigation is taking place around a shrine in some desert plains. The Germans have built a railway to provide supplies, scientists and protection to the site. A lone soldier stands guard beside one of two strange medieval buildings (he is the first plot point whose task is to reveal where the second is to find).

There are some henchmen of HYDRA assembled on the railroad track on the lower edge of this photo:

An American task force which is lead by famous Captain America and his sidekick Bucky stands on the track on the upper edge of that photo:

The sentry whistles some tune about a siren on the river Rhine and stands staring bored into nowhere.

The HYDRA villains advance from behind the corrugated tin huts and try to approach the sentinel.

The Captain and one of the agents do the same...

One of the Germans catch a glimpse of the approaching Americans.

These pair in two groups: Cap and two agents on the right...

...and Bucky with another agent on the left of a goods wagon.

Slowly all of them are winning some ground and move forward to the guard.

A bit of shooting at each other causes first casualties...

Captain America climbs on a tank car to overwatch from high ground.

Meanwhile HYDRA focusses on mission objective instead of doing some heroic posing on parked goods wagons and interviews the sentry where to find Oberst von Strutz.

Happy to have somebody to talk to the German explains in all detail where the entrance to the secret bunker is hidden. One of the huts house a staircase that leads deeply below the ground. Just at that moment the Colonel appears in front of the door.

Bucky develops a cunning plan to approach the German Colonel: He ascends another tank car and intents to jump to the roof of the hut next to Von Strutz. Hydra takes out another agent without Bucky taking notice.

As heroic Bucky´s attempts might be, HYDRA is quicker. They contact the Colonel, but fail to get the desired information at first.

The situation isn´t the best for the Americans: With three agents knocked down and only the Captain and Bucky in action, but out of range, the Germans perform way better:

However Bucky manages to jump to the roof while the Germans still haven´t got the information.

He doesn´t notice that he has been trapped with the interviewers being the bait and a stealthy HYDRA henchmen behind an advertising column shooting at him.

But lucky Bucky is a semi-hero at least and returns fire to the villains who goes down immediately.

Then the hero of the day jumps right into a brawl with the interviewers, knocking both down and calling the Captain for help.

A daring German tries to shoot him from the top but is timbered by the angry Captain instead.

Now round 6 is over and time is running out for the Americans. The Captain was of no use at all. The agents are all dead. Bucky didn´t get in touch with Oberst von Strutz who could have provided the information where one of three secret finds of scientific interest are located: - an alien egg- a crate that contains a piece of the Tesseract- a mysterious blue phone box that is thought to be a time travelling deviceHYDRA got away with one reward and had almost got a second one. The American heroes have to leave for their pick up with empty hands...

Donnerstag, 10. April 2014

Now look at that! Would you believe this is a draft version of a card game that is yet nowhere to buy? We couldn´t, but it actually is. The miniatures are displayed for fun only and of course to get you hooked to read on...

Cops & Robbers

A new card game by Devious Games from New Zealand that will be on kickstarter soon. The link will be posted here of course when it´s due.

The game can be played by 2 to 6 players aged 8 or older. The TableTerrorTeam had the chance to get a pre-fabrication copy of the game to playtest:

It is about cops and robbers (as the title implies) with the players being robbers trying to steal as much money as they can until either a certain sum is achieved or an appointed time has run out. We won´t publish the complete rules here, but will try to give you a summary of what you can expect.

There are three card decks on the table with a discard pile for each as well:

Robbers

Loot

Cops

Players start with 5 robber cards each, which is the maximum of cards on the player´s hand during the game too. When it is his turn a player may choose to either draw 2 robber cards or to draw 1 loot card. If not looted that turn the player may play as many cards as he likes. That can be to prepare his getaway by adding improvements to the getaway preparation or to manipulate his opponents.

When a player decides that he has collected enough loot and his getaway is prepared well, he may stash. That means that the player does not draw any cards, but has to take as many cop cards as he has loot cards in his stash. Robber and cops cards values are added and compared. If the robber´s value is equal or higher, the player is getting away with his stash and adds the loot to his loot pile. This can yet be hindered by other players who are playing cards to prevent the robber from getting away.

If a player is jailed by not getting away or being trapped, his loot is lost and he misses a turn.

We conclude that it is a fast and funny game that is easy to understand. It provides an hour or an entire evening of happiness and laughter, the choice is on the players. The artwork is really nice and Kieran the producer promised to have more illustrations by his brother Neill in the actual game than were available for the pre-production.

Two thumbs up from us - we kindly recommend to support that kickstarter to see the game finally produced.

Devious Games Ltd is running a Cops and Robbers Competition from March 29th 2014 through to May the 17th 2014.

The competition is simple, all you need to do is like the facebook page . Yes that is all you need to do. For every 100 likes the page gets (up to a maximum of 1000 likes) Devious games will give away, free of charge, postage and packaging included, one copy of Cops and Robbers. If you have already liked the facebook page, Awesome!!! You've already got your entry to the competition. Spread this around as much as you can so we have more cops and robbers games to give away.

Conditions:The Kickstarter beginning on April the 20th 2014 finishing on May the 18th 2014 must raise at least the $4,000 initial funding goal.

1 winner will be chosen for every full 100 likes on facebook e.g. 100-199 likes = 1 winner, 200-299 likes = 2 winners up to a maximum of 1000 likes in which case there will be a maximum of 10 winners. Winner's will be announced after the Kickstarter has completed on May the 18th 2014. Winners will be drawn at random from those people that have liked the facebook page.The winner is responsible for providing their shipping details to devious games ltd.The winner will be responsible for any import taxes to their respective country.Winners chosen are final and no correspondence will be entered into regarding this.

Sonntag, 6. April 2014

Eine uralte Fehde brachte zwei Gegner an einem ungewöhnlich milden Freitagabend im März auf den Plan. Olaf Waldasson war mit seinen Mannen an den Gestaden der Normandie gelandet, um seinem alten Erzfeind Godefroy de Michirail nach Jahren der gegenseitigen Piesackerei endlich den Garaus zu machen. Dem Normannen konnte das nur Recht sein, denn er ersparte sich auf diese Weise eine lange Überfahrt in skandinavische Gefilde und hatte alle Vorteile der Ortskenntnis auf seiner Seite.An old feud made two opponents meet one extraordinarily mild friday evening in march.Olaf Waldasson and his men were landed in Normandy to end the deeds of his arch enemy Godefroy den Michirail - very much to the delight of the Norman who could spare a long journey and had all advantages on his side due to the knowledge about the terrain of his own country.

Von der Küste im Norden kommend marschierte ein Haufen Bondi, verpflichtete Wikingerkrieger, rechts neben der Straße auf die Normannen zu.Coming from the north some bondi marched down from the coast to the right of the road straight to the Normans.

Auf der Straße war Godefroy mit seiner Schildwache vor ihm aufgezogen. Zu seiner Linken stand eine Abteilung Armbrustschützen bereit.Godefroy was shielded by his knights in the middle of the road. His sergeants were equipped with crossbows and deployed to his right.

Olaf Waldasson preschte in den Schatten des Wäldchens, was ihn ziemlich verausgabte.Olaf Waldasson ran into the shadows of a small forrest which exhausted him quite a bit.